Morning Solace

Woke up to the smell of rain this morning. Or so I thought. Outside I found the ground bone dry. Still… it smelled like hope to me. And I need a little hope these days.

Lately I’m not getting up as many blogs as I would like. Too many days have gotten away from me as I got sucked into the “black void” of following the damaging acts of our government for Desktop Activist Tucson. With all that is going on in the world, it’s hard to find time or the rationale for the more joyful pursuits like blogging or writing my screenplay.

My one solace is tending our little garden and watching what we planted grow.  It gives me a chance to watch the butterflies and bees (there still are some!) pollinating our moringas, listen to the sound of birds singing and children at play.  Or, like Pooh above, just bask in the morning sun and autumn breezes. Ahh…Autumn. 

I need that. It’s been a long, hard summer.

We tried an experiment. Inspired by the rich natural soil in the alleyway (nourished by decomposing weeds and some native trees), we decided to plant a 3 Sisters Garden with drought-tolerant heritage seeds. The object was to see how our garden would fare on just our monsoon rain and some palo verde mulch to hold in the moisture.

Unlike last year, we actually got some nice monsoon showers this summer. Every morning I happily recorded the growth in our heritage garden. While the Tohono O’odham 60 Day Corn didn’t “grow as high as an elephant’s eye,” it did grow up past my knee. It even started to sprout some seeds.

Then...the rains stopped. And it got scorching hot. It was unseasonably hot and dry. 

 In two weeks it looked like this...

I was completely disheartened when someone or something stomped through our garden knocking down the corn. 

But amidst the bent, dried stalks, there were a few patches of green - signs of life in the desert!  The cowpea plants we got from our local seed library had survived! A friendly gardener encouraged me, “I think it’s time you watered them. They deserve it for hanging in there. They are survivors.”

So I started lugging my watering can out behind the back fence to water them. Those sun scorched, insect ravaged plants sprouted new leaves and then I spotted - the first white flower!

It was wonderful to see something growing amongst all the devastation. (OK. I’m getting a little dramatic here.) But this was just the reminder that I needed to make more of an effort to find a balance in my life - between fighting environment assaults and doing things that enrich my soul. I finally found the heart to work on my love project again. 

Grateful to be catching a little morning solace, I breathe in the autumn breeze and survey my garden. In the kitchen garden, a tomato is showing its autumn colors. As I fill the clay olla by the cherry tomato plant bees buzz overhead - a welcome sign that the tiny yellow flowers will be pollinated. Closer inspection uncovers two new tomatoes!  A glimpse of hope. 

Another benefit of working in the garden:

Antidepressant Microbes In Soil: How Dirt Makes You Happy

3 Sisters: Sowing Strength in Solidarity

This summer Dan and I conducted a little experiment. We wanted to find out if hardy desert crops could survive the long, hot Tucson summer on just monsoon rains. Dan tried the traditional Iroquois method of building mounds for the 3 SISTERS: Tohono O'odham 60 day corn, brown tepary beans, and Ha:al squash. These complimentary crops become stronger by working together. The beans provide nitrogen to the soil. The corn provides stalks for the beans to climb and shade for the squash. And the squash, in turn, provides ground cover to keep out weeds. (Of course, the Hohokam had a system of channels that drew from the Santa Cruz River that flowed year around back then and the Tohono O'odham did flood plain irrigation.) 

After a couple of light showers, we watched as the seeds began to sprout. (Though some mysterious varmint was eating the leaves off of the tops of the beans and only a couple of squash leaves unfurled.) A volunteer squash in our compost pit was doing better. Unfortunately, there wasn't much of a monsoon this summer, so we watched disheartened as our garden withered away. On one of the mounds, a single bean plant survived, and there were two wilted corn stalks still clinging to life on another. So I dug three holes next to the bean plant, put some compost at the bottom, and replanted the corn and the volunteer squash. Storm clouds came and went as we waited... and waited... and waited for rain.

As I watched the effect of the drought on our garden, I became more conscious of how much water we use in our home. We started saving dishwater for our thirsty Mexican Honeysuckle. We bought what we thought was environmentally friendly dish soap. But it turned out to contain more salt than we would have liked, so we have to alternate between the soapy dishwater and the clear rinse water to help flush the salt build-up out of the soil.

The downspout we installed was useless without rain. So we began to use the water from rinsing off our produce to water a little kitchen garden where I had planted some potatoes that sprouted. We also watered the remaining 3 Sisters mound. (You don't want to use water with meat particles in food gardens because it could transmit pathogens.) The bean plant is still hanging in there, and the potato plants are growing nicely all from water that would have gone down the drain. I know, I know, it would be so easy to just turn on the hose. But this is just a drop in the dish bucket compared to how many Hopi and Navajo have to conserve water.

While we are "experimenting" with saving water, members of 280 Native American tribes have gathered together at Standing Rock, South Dakota to fight for water! They have put their bodies on the front line to stop the construction of the crude oil pipeline that will go under the Missouri River - the main source of water for the tribe and 17 million other Americans. A federal judge recently rejected the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's petition to stop construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. But later that day, the US Army, Justice, and Interior departments jointly announced they would temporarily stop the pipeline work until the environmental impact is investigated. The pipeline continues to be built in other areas.

Dan and I celebrated that victory with a symbolic dinner of the 3 Sisters. To me it represented the strength these courageous protectors have shown by working in unity.

Corn, beans, zucchini. tomato, and onions topped with queso fresco on a masa patty.

The tribes understand that this is just the beginning. Many have set up camp for the Winter. The Sioux have been joined by other tribes who have also been exploited for their land and water, including: the Navajo, the Hopi, the San Carlos Apache, and our local Tohono O'odham. It is inspiring to see these tribes uniting for a shared cause and working together to meet the needs of the camp - educating the children, keeping up morale, providing firewood, medical care, spiritual support, and traditional meals.

Water is Life!

We may not be on the front lines fighting for water, but we can march in solidarity here in Tucson, sign the petition to stop the pipeline, contact our representatives, and try to conserve water. (Here are some other ways we can help.) Like the 3 Sisters, we are stronger when we work together.

Sign the petition to stop police in riot gear from arresting the brave journalists covering this historic fight.

Contact the banks funding the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Donate to the Legal Defense Fund.